U.s. Puts Up $250,000 For Abbas Tips

WASHINGTON — The Reagan administration will offer a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Mohammed Abbas, accused of planning the hijacking of an Italian cruise ship.

The State Department, in an announcement today, also is expected to offer a $250,000 reward for those responsible for the car-bomb attack last August at Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt, West Germany, in which two Americans were killed and 20 were injured. The Red Army Faction claimed responsibility.

The rewards come as U.S. efforts to apprehend those responsible appear to have bogged down.

Late last week, the State Department notified allies and key members of Congress, including Sen. Alan Dixon, D-Ill., of the decision to offer rewards. Dixon, co-chairman of the Senate anti-terrorism caucus, wrote to Secretary of State George Shultz last month to urge him to offer a reward for Abbas, also known as Abdul Abbas, who heads a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization linked by the United States and Israel to a number of terrorist attacks.

Shultz is authorized to offer a reward of up to $500,000.

A State Department official said the United States lost track of Abbas after the Italian government released him six weeks ago despite an urgent U.S. request that he be detained as the leader of the Achille Lauro hijackers.

During the hijacking, the terrorists shot and killed Leon Kling- hoffer, 69, an American tourist.

Abbas was aboard an Egyptian airliner with the four ship hijackers when it was intercepted by U.S. warplanes and forced to land in Sicily. A dispute about the decision to let him leave the country brought down the Italian government. Italy has since issued an arrest warrant for Abbas.

Abbas, who traveled on an Iraqi diplomatic passport, flew from Italy to Yugoslavia, where he dropped from sight.